The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, a landmark study has claimed.

The Pew Forum report also revealed that Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon - or North and South America combined.

It claimed that about five per cent of Europe’s population practises Islam - and that there are more Muslims living in Asia than in the Middle East.

Until now, experts have largely been guessing at the precise number of Muslims in the world, with estimates from one billion to 1.8 billion.

But the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report, released today, finally pinpoints the number of those practicing the world’s second largest religion, behind Christianity.

The three-year-long project also provided some surprising statistics. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.

’This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report,’ said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.

The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia: More than 60 per cent of the world’s Muslims live in Asia.